He 111Z Zwilling - photos

[mklotz]

Was that glider loaded full with gold bars or something?

No, but the Nazis developed super gliders that were to be used to carry heavy armament across the English Channel during the invasion of England. The largest of these was the Messerschmitt Me 321 Gigant...

The Zwilling (German for 'twin') was developed to drag this monster into the air. The paragraph below, extracted from the Wikipedia article on the Gigant, details this...

The test flights were plagued by takeoff difficulties, since the Junkers Ju 90 was not powerful enough, and as an interim measure three Bf 110 heavy fighters were used, in a so-called Troikaschlepp, with the trio of twin-engined fighters taking off together in a V formation. This was a highly dangerous manoeuvre and Ernst Udet asked Ernst Heinkel to come up with a better aerial towing method. Heinkel responded by creating the Heinkel He 111Z Zwilling ("Twins"), which combined two He 111 aircraft through the use of a new "center" wing section with a fifth engine added. Underwing-mount, liquid monopropellant Walter HWK 109-500 Starthilfe rocket-assisted takeoff booster units were also used to assist takeoff from rough fields.